Sat Jun 11 2022
Mama didn’t raise no fool, so when we got up on the 24th we donned our togs and made another visit to the hot springs, this time with our Yeti go mugs full of hot coffee. There’s not a better way to start the day - well, perhaps only one other I can think of, but with us our morning coffee happens before pretty much anything else. We had a good visit with our dock mates and finally got underway, proceeding North up the Ursula Channel then Southwest down the Verney Passage. We wanted to wait for the tide to turn in the Grenville Channel so we winkled our way through the channel by Hartley Bay where we got a great cell signal and caught up on email. It wasn’t long before the current was subsiding so we headed up Grenville Channel to Lowe Inlet where as luck would have it we were the first to arrive.
Lowe Inlet is a pretty and secluded anchorage just below a fresh water lake. The lake dumps into the inlet through a waterfall that’s at the head of the bay. The hot ticket is to anchor just in front of the waterfall in about 4 fathoms and allow the water current to keep the boat in position. During the salmon run it is an awesome spot to view bears fishing salmon out of the waterfall. Unfortunately for us the salmon haven’t started the run yet, but Isabel did spy her first black bear of the journey in a large meadow off to the West. Very exciting!
Several other boats arrived after us so we didn’t have it all to ourselves, but it was a lovely and relaxing night and the Bruce anchor held well. Arising early the following morning we weighed anchor in the rain and continued North up Grenville Channel to Arthur Passage and to Prince Rupert. When the cell signal arrived we contacted a Jack and Cindy Payne, close friends with Trevor. We had met them back around 2007 when we had flown our little Van’s RV6 up to Prince Rupert to fish with Trevor for 10 days. Jack advised us to contact the Prince Rupert Royal Yacht Club where we were offered moorage by their most excellent harbormaster Kevin. Across from us was a lovely Nordhavn 40 called Skookum 1 with an even lovelier couple aboard. Derek and his wife were from Kitimat and were fishing maniacs, being kind enough to explain to us how they catch salmon and halibut and pretty much everything else. They also had a great dog.
We got ourselves all sorted out with Kevin, power plugged in, electric heater running, wifi blazing away, and then Jack and Cindy arrived to have a visit aboard Sunset before we wandered over to their boat Balboa. Trevor is an amazing and talented craftsman and the changes to Balboa since we were aboard in 2007 were impressive. Jack and Cindy no longer run a fishing charter business, electing instead to entertain their kids and grandchildren aboard Balboa. After pointing out all the amazing features Jack showed us the live well where several large crabs were skittering about, dining on fish heads. He and Cindy encouraged us to take a few before leaving the following day, and Cindy gave us a couple of packets of frozen shrimp they had recently caught. Wow, what hospitality, then we wandered up to a sushi restaurant for a nice meal. All I can think of to say about Canadians is they’re just the nicest people!
The next morning we wandered into town and purchased some fishing lures and fresh veggies then visited a local butchery for locally made sausage and bacon then finally a fish processing shop where we bought some amazing cold smoked salmon. Done with stimulating the economy, we bid Kevin farewell and departed for our jumping off point to Ketchikan, a small bay on the North side of Dundas Island adjacent to Brundige Inlet. Turned out the bottom was covered in seaweed and it took a couple tries to get a decent anchor set but we managed and had an early night.
The following morning, Friday May 27th, we arose early and made our way North through the East end of the Dixon Entrance, up the Revillagigedo Channel to Ketchikan. Once close we contacted the harbor master and were assigned a berth at North Bar Harbor marina, about a mile walk from the downtown area where the cruise ships berth. Craig the dock master and his wife Robin the office admin were friendly as they could be, and had us situated in nothing flat. They briefed us on the fun things to do and see in Ketchikan, and off we launched. We visited the old part of town where the working ladies used to run their houses of ill repute, we walked up to a museum to examine local native culture, we studied on various totem poles and we people watched the punters from the various cruise ships. The Ketchikan waterfront is packed with fancy shops all designed to lure the cruise ship passengers in, and all owned by the cruise ship companies. Feeling like we had made a good day of it, we discovered the Asylum Bar across the street from the cruise ship docks. The Asylum Bar is a local watering hole with fast complimentary wifi and craft beer on tap for $3.50 a pint. How could we say no? Plenty of friendly people around, great local craft brew, loading up podcasts and Spotify playlists, we multitasked so much we had to have a second beer to use our time wisely.
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